x31 trouble with MSDOS - don't laff!

[jtt3011]

First, an easy question ... perhaps.

Exactly which type of ATI Radeon display adaptor is used on the 6272 X31? All I can find listed anywhere, (including the IBM spec) is that it is a Radeon Fire GL, but there are umpteen versions listed on the ATI site. So, even if that's the right item, I've no idea which which driver version I want. I had expected the adaptor to be the Mobility Radeon, but even if that is so, there are still umpteen versions listed by ATI. The correct driver is my target, and I'm currently using the latest version for the 6272 listed on the Levano site.

My X31 is working perfectly, except for this one MSDOS drawback.

I have a piece of loudspeaker testing kit which connects via a parallel port to a PC. It is controlled by an MSDOS program running on the PC. I have had it for around 10 yrs, and have been consistantly suprised that it has continued to work fine with the different manifestations of Windows that have been introduced over that time. It has also worked fine over the assortment of PCs and laptops I have used. And it continues that trend with my present desktop (3.2Ghz P4) and with a Thinkpad A22M - both running XP Pro. But the X31 aint so cooperative.

The DOS program loads OK, and displays the opening half-display splash screen (a variety of text styles/colours) perfectly. But the main run program, which opens full screen immediately after, has a significantly fuzzy character - so much so, that the program is effectivly unusable. The program itself seems to be running OK, so I am inclined to think the problem is down to the display adaptor. Hence my search to see if I can find anything more up to date than the installed driver.

Suprisingly, after a loading glitch with this program on my desktop, the system threw a wobbly, resulting in the oft seen error message inviting me to send a report to MS. The suprise came when I OK'd the invite and got a response back from MS - wow - I've never had that before! The message was that there had been a problem encountered with the video driver, and in addition to suggesting I checked for updated drivers, it suggested reducing the video acceleration setting. There isn't usually a problem with the desktop. so I ignored it. But I did try it on the X31, with no result.

So ............. any ideas anybody. I bought the X31 so I could make a nice lightweight ensemble with the loudspeaker kit, and I'm gutted at the current outcome. Should've stuck with my TP240 perhaps - it worked fine with that, once the [censored] thing groaned its way thro' bootup!

[ajkula66]

I believe that the proper designation of video chip is Radeon M6.

Hope this helps.

[obpsym]

The ATI Mobility Raidon supports the following resolution modes,

640x480 256, 64k, 16M
800x600 256, 64k, 16M
1024x768 256, 64k, 16M
1280x1024 256*1, 64k*1, 16M*1
1600x1200 256*1, 64k*1
2048x1536 256*1, 64k*1

You may find that your DOS application uses an unsupported video mode like 720 x 400.

You could try to force the application to use "Run in 640x480 screen resolution"
Right click the .exe file and select properties, make sure the application is set to run in compatibility mode "Win 95" "force 256 colors" Lots of DOS tweeks here http://www.dosgames.com/xphints.php


Also check that the parallel port is enables in your BIOS, if it's enabled check the IRQ setting and compare with another working machine, your DOS application might be expecting a different memory allocation / address at startup and causing a crash.

[ragefury32]

That Radeon M6 on should be able to support VESA 2.0 up to at least mode 283 (0x011b), which is 1280x1024/24bpp. As for the fuzziness, that's just the Radeon scaling up a non-native mode on screen (um...800x600?). The TP240 runs 800x600 by default so it'll give you an illusion of being sharp. See if you can get the testing app to run on 1024x768, run it to an external CRT (which should work fine) or turn off the scaling in BIOS.

[jtt3011]

Tried all the above, plus some more besides, but no luck.

Any more ideas?

[dyrnew]

i dont think it is a problem with video card try different compatibility modes

or my best advice is to use dos box i had grate success with it

[j-dawg]

I echo the last poster's sentiment, but I don't know how well DOSBox will interact with your hardware. It's more designed for self-contained games than for working with peripherals.

Still, it's worth a shot.

[graywolf]

An alternative. You might try SpeakerWorkshop. It is freeware and runs under Windows. It works OK on my X24.

[jtt3011]

i dont think it is a problem with video card try different compatibility modes

or my best advice is to use dos box i had grate success with it

Been there, done that an' all! DOSbox does drive the display OK, which astonished me, and I've set up the config file to load the loudspeaker application at start up. Wonderful, eh? Well, not exactly .............. DOSbox doesn't drive the LPT1 port, to which the test rig connects. The DOSbox forum has a section devoted to moans about this aspect, and there are unofficial fixes mentioned which refer to binaries and funny compilers I've never heard of. But the games afficienados make it clear that they've got little interest in developng the LPT function, since it's rarely if ever, required on old gaming s/w.

But I'm still open to suggestions, well .......... within reason!